


Bus Rides

by Pramithia



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-14
Updated: 2014-09-14
Packaged: 2018-02-17 08:59:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2304071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pramithia/pseuds/Pramithia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Makoto had never thought of bus rides to be significant. Not until a man named Yamazaki Sousuke caught his attention.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bus Rides

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic a couple weeks ago, and posted it on Tumblr before posting it here. So if you see a fic called "Bus Rides" on Tumblr, the author is still me, I didn't copy this from anybody.

The first time Makoto saw him, it was a sunny Friday morning. The man was boarding the same bus that Makoto was on, as Makoto was heading towards the elementary school that he worked at.

He wasn’t exactly sure what about that man caught his eyes. He must have seen hundreds of people board the same bus as him, but this man stuck out. Perhaps it was his height. Makoto had rarely met anybody as tall as him, and he had his suspicions that the man boarding the bus was taller than himself. Or perhaps it was those broad shoulders. Or the mysterious facial expression he had. Something about the man intrigued Makoto, and he couldn’t stop sneaking glances at him.

All too soon, the man had got up to leave, and checking his surroundings, Makoto realized that it was his stop too. As he stepped off the bus, he noticed the man heading in the opposite direction as him. Staring at his retreating figure, Makoto watched the man until he disappeared into the crowd, walking in the busy streets of Tokyo. As he shook his head, Makoto left and headed towards the elementary school, ready to face his class of kindergarteners again.

The next time Makoto saw him, it was on Monday, after the weekend. He was sitting in a four seater, and hadn’t noticed the man when he’d boarded the bus, since Makoto was busy looking through the drawings his kindergarteners had drawn for him. As he looked through the pile, he realized that it must nearly be time to get off the bus. Looking up, Makoto noticed the familiar broad shouldered and mysterious faced man that he had seen last Friday, sitting across from him in the four seater.

“Ah!” The recognition of the man and seeing him again caught Makoto by surprise, and he couldn’t help the noise that came out of his throat.

The man looked away from the window and looked at Makoto.

“Yes?” the man replied. Makoto was caught off guard by a piercing blue eyed stare in his tilted eyes.

“O-oh! It’s nothing, sorry about that!” Makoto answered sheepishly.

“By the way,” the mysterious man spoke up again, as they were getting ready to leave the bus, and pointed to Makoto’s feet. “There’s a picture underneath your seat.”

“Oh! There is, thank you…” Makoto’s voice trailed off awkwardly, upon realizing he didn’t know the stranger’s name.

“Yamazaki,” the man supplied. “Yamazaki Sousuke.”

“Thank you, Yamazaki-san,” Makoto bowed formally, as soon as they got off the bus. “My name is Tachibana Makoto.”

“There’s no need for you to bow so formally, Tachibana-san,” Sousuke replied. “Anyways, I have to get going. Bye.”

Bidding farewells, Makoto caught the sight of Sousuke’s blue eyes again. And then he couldn’t help but think about how mesmerizing they were. He was no stranger to beautifully blue eyes. His childhood friend Nanase Haruka had the darkest blue eyes he could imagine, resembling the ocean. And his student, Shigino Hayato, had the brightest blue eyes, always sparkling when he got praise from any teacher. But never had he seen blue eyes as, well, mesmerizing as Sousuke’s. And throughout the day, the students caught him unfocused a lot. Most of those times, he was thinking about those brilliant blue eyes that Sousuke possessed.

Their next few meetings were all on the bus. They would always sit near each other, but never right next to each other. The first few times, they would send each other glances, but if Makoto ever noticed Sousuke meeting his eyes, he would turn away immediately, flustered. After a week or so, they started to talk on the bus (although, it was Sousuke who had brought up the courage to talk to Makoto).

And that was when they started getting to know each other. Sousuke had immediately noticed Makoto’s eyes, when they first met. They were a gorgeous shade of green, and held an angelic gentleness that Sousuke worried would break if he got too close. After all, he was everything but gentle. He emitted an aura of strength and was often very harsh. And yet despite the fear of breaking the gentleness that Makoto held within him, he found himself attracted to Makoto anyways. Later, he realized that the gentleness didn’t only exist in his eyes, but within all of Makoto. His smile, his laugh, his movements, his entire body emitted gentleness that Sousuke wanted to protect.

Makoto learned that Sousuke wasn’t a harsh man. Although his face had a kind of expression that seemed to scare people off, he would easily smile and laugh once somebody got to know him. The tilt in his eyes made his smiling expression endearing, and his laughing expression downright irresistible. And Sousuke was stronger than Makoto. Because the two of them had similar builds, with an immense height and broad backs, they would always both appear to be powerful. But Makoto was a complete softie, working with children and living with cats. And Sousuke was far more powerful than Makoto ever imagined himself to be. His broad shoulders made it look possible to be able to defend himself from anything. Makoto knew he was always afraid of silly things, like ghosts and monsters. But being around Sousuke made him feel warm and cozy. He felt safe.

And then, Makoto realized, he was no longer satisfied with the 20 minutes of small talk they would have on the bus. He wanted more. He wanted to be able to see Sousuke more than just on the bus. He wanted to know more about him, to see him more often, and to be able to feel the happiness he always felt around Sousuke. He had realized, weeks ago, that he might have a tiny little crush on the wonderful man he met on the bus. So later that day, a few months after their initial meeting, Makoto gathered up his courage to ask Sousuke about this, after getting off the bus at their usual bus stop.

“Yamazaki-kun!” Makoto called out, just before Sousuke turned to leave.

“Yes, Tachibana?” Sousuke looked at him curiously, with a raised eyebrow.

:”U-um, I was thinking,” Makoto’s tongue felt like it was tied up, as he fumbled for the right words. “S-since we work in the same general area, would you like the have lunch with me one day?”

“Tachibana,” Sousuke looked at Makoto seriously. “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“U-um, maybe?” Makoto stammered, feeling his face heat up. “Well… yes.”

And then, Sousuke let out the most delightful laugh that Makoto had ever heard.

“Of course I’ll join you for lunch,” Sousuke answered. “But only if you call me Sousuke.”

And then, that angelic smile that had appeared on Makoto’s face was easily the most beautiful thing that Sousuke had ever laid his eyes on.

“Of course, Sousuke-kun!”

And Sousuke realized it too. That he might just have a tiny crush on this green eyed angel.


End file.
